Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 239, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1914 — BRYAN COMING TO TALK U. S. ISSUES [ARTICLE]

BRYAN COMING TO TALK U. S. ISSUES

State Democratic Bosses Want to Divert Attention From Candidacy of Homer L Cook. Indianapolis, Ind., Oct. s.—ln a last desperate effort to get the minds of Indiana voters off of state issues, the Crawford FairbanksTom Taggart political machine has made arrangements for William J. Bryan, secretary of state, to make a two days’ tour of Indiana and talk solely on “national issues.” Bryan has always been pretty much of a circus attraction and for that reason it is expected that he will draw well. He has long been rated a first class chaiitauqua card, along with Tyrolean yodlers and the trained pigs. If Col. Bryan was a resident of Indiana the chances are about a million to one that he would not take the stump in behalf of a ticket headed by Homer L. Cook, who was speaker of the 1913 legislature when laws were juggled into the statute books that were not passed by that body. In Nebraska, his home state, Col. Bryan, on more than one occasion, has declined to support democratic candidates who owed their nomination to the machine that controls his party in his home state. It is inconceivable that Bryan would advise any Indiana democrat to support such a ticket as has been named by the brewery outfit that is in control of the democratic party organization at this time in Indiana. Bryan’s record makes it plain that he would be vigorous in his opposition to candidates with such a public record as that of Cook. Col. Bryan will find that thousands and thousands of Indiana democrats have decided to follow his example this year by voting against a party ticket, names solely by an unscrupulous organization. The long standing animosity exTsting between the Taggart machine and Bryan is so well known it is not surprising that Bryan will not discuss state issues. He never could see the Taggart brand of politics with its extravagance, crime and incompetence, and has often done everything he could to further the interests of those democrats in Indiana who are opposed to the machine rather than see the TaggartTerre Haute Brewery Company brand of politics prevail. Another reason advanced for Bryan’s refusal to discuss state issues is his soreness over the treatment he received from the Taggart delegates in the Baltimore convention in 1912. He has not forgotten the bitter opposition he encountered from the Indiana delegates in his attempt to force some of his ideals and principles into the Baltimore platform, nor has he forgotten the opposition that arose in the Indiana delegation to his choice for the presidency, Woodrow Wilson. Taggart and Bryan followers clashed all over Indiana when the delegation to the 'Baltimore convention was made. The Taggart men secretly packed the delegation in the interests of Champ Clark.

Not long ago Bryan -announced that most of those connected with the democratic administration in Washington, himself included, would stay there on the job and would not participate in the campaign. He was still smarting under the country-wide criticism of his leaving Washington to deliver Chautauqua lectures. This it will be remembered, forced him to discontinue and stay at his desk. But now’, notwithstanding the crisis that has arisen by reason of the renewed warfare in Mexico and the European war, he drops the reins in his office to hurry to Indiana in response to a desperate plea from the Indiana delegation in congress to try to save the sinking ship. Bryan’s Mexican policy, his appointment of incompetents to consular service abroad and hisVnumerous other acts have been so laughable that beyond furnishing a' little entertainment for Hoosier voters his tour of this state will accomplish little for the democrats of Indiana. His Mexican policy has been the laughing, stock of >he world and his grape juice diplomacy has caused so much ridicule of Americans abroad that the United States is rapidly becoming discredited.